In a press conference this morning, Ford Australia has announced its Geelong and Boradmeadow production plants will be ceasing production at the ending of October in 2016. This will result in the loss of around 1200 jobs and the iconic Falcon brand will be ceasing.

The 650 Broadmeadow job losses and 510 Geelong job losses come off the back of a $141 million financial loss in 2012 and a $600 million over the last 5 years for the car manufacturer. The R&D department will still be staying open as that is still a part of their globally profitable business.

Ford Australia boss, Bob Graziano has said that there has been no single reason for the financial losses the company has faced but he did highlight the fact that it costs four times more to manufacture in Australia than in Asia and two times more than in Europe.

Graziano said that “these are always difficult decisions, we’ve looked for any and every opportunity to continue here”.

The brand will still continue in Australia with the plans for the new 2014 Falcon and Territory going ahead as planned and their lineup will grow by 30% in the next 3 years. Ford will continue product development in Australia and will still try to grow the brand with imported products. The iconic Falcon brand will be ceased when the Australian production finishes and the future of the FPV brand is also unclear.

Ford has received strong investment from the government in previous years which Ford claims that for every dollar the government invested they put back 6 dollars into the economy.

In an interview with ABC, workers have said that Ford have handled them very well and that they have tried to break the news as best as possible.

There has been no decisions made on the future of the brand in the V8 Supercars.

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